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Yeukai Karengezeka Court Correspondent
Two more suspected robbers involved in the robbery of a financial services company and fled with over US$720 676, R10 500, Euro 120, a 7.65 mm CZ Vzor pistol and three laptops have appeared in court.
The two Obvious Chanakira(29) and Godknows Garira (28) appeared before Mr Donald Ndirowei charged with armed robbery.
Yesterday the two had their docket married with that of their other seven accomplices who were arraigned before the court last week.
The seven are Washington Mangwanda (21), Brighton Chikuwa (27), Silence Matambo (27), Liberty Mukangaise (31), Richard Marondera (25), Luke Zinyengere (28) and Shadreck Tendai Mudanga (42) who is believed to be the mastermind of the heist.
Last Friday,Mudanga challenged placement on remand arguing that the State had no evidence linking him to the crime.
However, his application was squashed by magistrate Ndirowei yesterday.
They were all remanded in custody to March 19, for routine remand.
According to the State, the accused were caught on CCTV camera committing the offence and to date only US$183 760 has been recovered.
Two other suspects Phillip Rwodzi (37) and Livingstone Tunha (53) have since been released by the police on the matter.
The State prosecutor Mr Lancelot Mutsokoti alleged that on February 25 at around 1:30 am, the accused persons went to rob the complainant, Lancelot Tashayawedu.
They armed themselves with a revolver pistol, unidentified blank pistol, electric drill, iron bar, bolt cutter and explosives and proceeded to Tashayawedu’s offices located at number 6 Rochester Road, Alexandra Park, Harare, driving in four separate vehicles namely a blue Honda Fit, silver Honda Fit, black Mercedes Benz and black Toyota Wish.
Upon arrival, they approached Tashayawedu in his bedroom after breaking the door of his bedroom.
They tied his hands and legs together with an electric cable and left him under guard by one of them.
The others proceeded to the main office building at the premises where they used an iron bar to smash the window pane of one of the office buildings to gain entry into the office.
The court heard the accused ransacked several offices in the building including the server room, the managing director’s office, the operations manager’s office and the board room.
They blasted the strong room and the safes using some detonators and stole cash amounting to US$720 676, 2 small cash boxes, 3xHp Laptops, a small monarch bag, a Wi-Fi router, ZAR 10 500, 120 Euros, PABX telephone machine and a 7.65 mm CZ Vzor pistol belonging to Peace Security Company which provide security during the day for the protection of cash, bullion and other valuables in transit.
It is alleged that the accused persons were disturbed by the arrival of the Safe Guard reaction team who parked their vehicle at the front of the offices and they fled from the scene leaving a grinder, fuse cables and a bag with two laptops.
The accused persons also dropped cash amounting to US$5 000 as they made their escape by breaking precast panels at the back of the building.
Investigations led to the arrest of the accused persons and the subsequent recovery of varying amounts of cash from the accused.
The first four accused persons were quickly identified by one of the detectives at CID Homicide Harare who had known them for more than 10 years.
Also recovered were motor vehicles which were bought by some of the accused persons using the stolen cash.
There is evidence of communication amongst the accused persons as they were planning before and during the commission of the offence. Call history records are available as evidence.
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